Clostridium perfringens type E enterotoxaemia in rabbits

Baskerville, Margaret; Seamer, John

doi:10.1136/vr.107.1.18

Cited by 28 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…As reviewed by Songer (1996) and Petit et al (1999), strains of toxinotype A are the most common in the intestines. Nevertheless, before the spread of ERE, toxinotype E was much more frequently isolated in diseased rabbits (Patton et al, 1978;Baskerville et al, 1980). Although there is nowadays a clear prevalence of genotype α, both α-β2 and α-cpe genotypes have also been detected in isolates from ERE-affected rabbits Menoyo et al, 2011).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterisation of Clostridium perfringens presence and concentration of its α-toxin in the caecal contents of fattening rabbits suffering from digestive diseases

et al. 2011

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Digestive diseases are the main cause of morbidity and mortality in growing rabbits. Clostridium perfringens is a widely occurring pathogenic bacterium in enteric diseases of domestic animals and its pathogenicity stems from the production of potent exotoxins. This work aimed to quantify the concentration of C. perfringens α-toxin in caecal samples of rabbits with digestive diseases and relate these concentrations to C. perfringens counts. Additionally, C. perfringens strains isolated from rabbits with clinical lesions of Epizootic Rabbit Enteropathy (ERE) were toxinotyped. To conduct this work, a total of 711 rabbits weaned at 35 d were housed in pairs and fattened until the age of 63 d. No experimental infection was performed and no antibiotics were provided in the feed or drinking water. All rabbits displaying symptoms of digestive diseases were slaughtered and necropsied. At 46 d, 88 healthy rabbits were also slaughtered. Caecal contents were sampled from all slaughtered animals. Thirty-seven out of the 69 rabbits with digestive diseases (88.5% of sick animals) showed ERE-confirmed symptoms and lesions. Apart from diarrhoea, the most constant ERE signs were abdominal bloating and borborygmi. At necropsy, the anterior digestive tract was found filled with large amounts of gas and liquid. Twenty-seven rabbits had liquid caecal contents whereas caecal impaction only appeared in 10 rabbits. Live weight was lower by 49.2% (P<0.001) in diseased rabbits as compared with healthy rabbits of the same age. For C. perfringens counts lower than 6.0 log cfu/g, the α-toxin concentration remained below 2.6 μg/mg. However, for bacterial counts above 6.0 log cfu/g the concentration of α-toxin ranged from 0.12 to 60.9 μg/mg. Nevertheless, both caecal concentration of C. perfringens (7.65 vs. 3.09 log cfu/g, P<0.001) and that of its α-toxin (6.02 vs. 0.17 μg/mg, P<0.001) were higher in diseased rabbits than in healthy ones. C. perfringens toxinotype A was found in all ERE-affected rabbits. No other toxinotype was identified and no isolate contained the enterotoxin gene. In conclusion, C. perfringens α-toxin should not be considered a good indicator of the bacterium's presence, as high counts of colonies are not always associated with high toxin concentrations.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterisation of Clostridium perfringens presence and concentration of its α-toxin in the caecal contents of fattening rabbits suffering from digestive diseases

et al. 2011

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“…Mouse killing and dermonecrosis -both modified from protocols in Sterne and Batty [4] -have routinely been the assays used to make a laboratory diagnosis. Thus, the initial reports of C. spiroforme diarrhea in rabbits were made by neutralizing the mouse-killing activity with antitoxin to C. perfringens Type E. Before the first reports of S toxin production by C. spiroforme from diarrheic rabbits, this cross neutralization led to the understandable but erroneous conclusion that C. perfringens Type E was the source of the toxin [16,[21][22][23][24][25]. However, in all of these cases, C. perfringens Type E was never isolated from diseased animals yet a curiously-coiled bacterium (C. spiroforme) was evident in only the sick, but not healthy, animals.…”

Section: To 1986: Clostridium Spiroforme S Toxin and Mouse Lethalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Iota Toxin, S Toxin and CDT: Members of the Same Class of Clostridial Binary Toxins in Feces of Humans and Other Animals~!2009-09-15~!2009-09-18~!2010-03-09~!

Carman¹,

Stevens²,

Genheimer³

et al. 2010

TOTNJ

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Some strains of Clostridium perfringens, Clostridium spiroforme and Clostridium difficile produce binary toxins known respectively as iota toxin, S toxin and CDT. Each toxin consists of two unlinked polypeptides (e.g. CDTa and CDTb) that only together have biological activity. Taking an historical perspective, we review the development and early use of assays employing the specific neutralization of a biological activity for the detection and quantification of binary toxin. The survey moves on to more recent immunological assays and culminates with a discussion of the relevance of binary toxin, especially CDT, in feces.

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“…In recent years several reports on the presence of Clostridium perfringens Type E iota toxin in the ceca of diarrheic rabbits have been published, although workers failed to isolate C. perfringens Type E from the ceca (Katz et al, 1978;Patton et al, 1978;Lamont et al, 1979;Baskerville et al, 1980;Fernie and Eaton, 1980;Rehg and Pakes, 1982). In 1982, Carman and Borriello reported iota-like toxigenicity by C. spiroforme isolated from diarrheic rabbits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Significance of Clostridium spiroforme in the enteritis-complex of commercial rabbits

Peeters¹,

Geeroms²,

Carman

et al. 1986

Veterinary Microbiology

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Commercial rabbits showing clinical signs of enteritis-complex were examined for the presence of Clostridium spiroforme and its iota-like toxin. The bacterium was detected by Gram stain in 52.4% of 149 cecal samples and iota-like toxin in 7.4%. From 29 strains of C. spiroforme tested, 26 were toxigenic, originating from 24 of 29 rabbitries. In 13.4% of the samples, C. spiroforme was present as the only known disease agent. Gross and microscopic lesions were similar to those described in the literature. In the other samples, C. spiroforme was associated with attaching effacing Escherichia coli (29.5%), Bacillus piliformis (10.3%), rotaviruses (25.6%), coronavirus (2.6%), Eimeria spp. (44.9%) and cryptosporidia (6.4%). In 33.3% of C. spiroforme-containing samples, more than one of these agents was present. There was no significant difference between the presence of these organisms in C. spiroforme-positive and negative samples. On the basis of these results as well as that of previous data, we suggest that C. spiroforme-mediated diarrhea is favoured by maldigestion, initiated by infectious agents and/or nutritional factors.

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Clostridium perfringens type E enterotoxaemia in rabbits

Cited by 28 publications

References 0 publications

Characterisation of Clostridium perfringens presence and concentration of its α-toxin in the caecal contents of fattening rabbits suffering from digestive diseases

Characterisation of Clostridium perfringens presence and concentration of its α-toxin in the caecal contents of fattening rabbits suffering from digestive diseases

Iota Toxin, S Toxin and CDT: Members of the Same Class of Clostridial Binary Toxins in Feces of Humans and Other Animals~!2009-09-15~!2009-09-18~!2010-03-09~!

Significance of Clostridium spiroforme in the enteritis-complex of commercial rabbits

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